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Microsoft offers many ways to buy Windows 7. You can buy the operating system preinstalled on a new PC, upgrade an existing PC using a shrink-wrapped retail package, purchase an upgrade online, or build a PC from scratch and install Windows yourself. In each of these cases, you can also take your pick of multiple Windows editions The price you pay will vary, depending on the edition and the sales channel. There are different license agreements associated with each such combination. Those license agreements are contracts that give you specific rights and also include specific limitations.

This might sound arbitrary. Indeed, a common complaint I hear is that Microsoft should simply sell one version of its OS at one price to every customer. That ignores the reality of multiple sales channels, and the fact that some people want the option to pay a lower price if they donít plan to use some features and are willing to pay a higher price for features like BitLocker file encryption.

If youíre not a lawyer, the subject of Windows licensing can be overwhelmingly confusing. The good news is that for most circumstances you are likely to encounter as a consumer or small business buyer, the licensing rules are fairly simple and controversy never arises. But for IT pros, enthusiasts, and large enterprises knowing these rules can save a lot of money and prevent legal hassles.

I have been studying the topic of Windows licensing for many years. As I have discovered, Microsoft does not have all of this information organized in one convenient location. Much of it, in fact, is buried in long, dry license agreements and on sites that are available only to partners. I couldnít find this information in one convenient place, so I decided to do the job myself. I gathered details from many public and private sources and summarized the various types of Windows 7 license agreements available to consumers and business customers. Note that this table and the accompanying descriptions deliberately exclude a small number of license types: for example, I have omitted academic and government licenses, as well as those provided as part of MSDN and TechNet subscriptions and those included with Action Pack subscriptions for Microsoft partners. With those exceptions, I believe this list includes every license situation that the overwhelming majority of Windows customers will encounter in the real world.

The table below is your starting point. The license types listed in the columns of this table are arranged in rough order of price, from least expensive to most expensive. For a detailed discussion of each license type, see the following pages, which explain some of the subtleties and exceptions to these rules. And a final, very important note: I am not a lawyer. This post is not legal advice. I have provided an important disclaimer on the final page of this post. Please read it.

That's a four page blog seen there covering the oem, upgrade, and full version licensing in some detail. For the novice user unfamiliar with the EULA it would literally take a century to go through the various MS pages to find the original pages for each catagory.

When spotting this one I knew this would be a big help for many since the questions about what is different for oem and upgrade compared to full version licensing is always being asked sooner or later. The writer there has saved many the time they would otherwise see trying to research this themselves by gathering the information gathered there.

I spent the extra here for the full version of Ultimate in order to have all of the features available in that edition. I would simply advise people to avoid any of the crap being pushed there since you never know what's in it! Not Good!

Microsoft combats Chromebooks by cutting Windows licensing fees by 70Microsoft is reportedly cutting Windows 8.1 license costs by 70 percent for PC makers. Bloomberg News reports that the cuts are targeted at devices that retail for less than $250, in a move designed to combat rival low-cost tablets and Chromebooks. PC makers are usually charged $50 for a license of...

News

Is Microsoft changing policy on System Builder licensing for Windows 8Read more at:
Is Microsoft changing its policy on System Builder licensing for Windows 8? | ZDNet
I found this in the ZDnet news and if I read it correctly then it means I cannot build a machine and use it myself using an OEM Windows - is this right? If so then I guess there will be a...

Microsoft mucks up Windows 7 licensingWindows 7 is a great product with relatively few foibles, but there's one major Win7 mess that has me seeing red.
The licensing terms for the new version of Windows are inconsistent, inaccurate, and downright inane — assuming you can wade through Microsoft's legalese in the first place.
If...